A Reuters story just came out where I think I sound pretty harsh on the Second Life platform. There are some corrections/clarifications that I should make.
Linden Lab worked very hard to be a good partner to ESC and make the CSI launch as successful as possible. They gave us early access to a new registration process that allowed us to have avatars auto-join a group, and use newly designed avatar looks (the Reuters article implies otherwise). They worked hard to make sure that we could handle an initial user spike, and were helpful in countless other ways. The October 07 launch met our expectations, and we still get 4,000 visitors a week coming to the CSI experience months later.
Still, I would be dishonest to not acknowledge that we ran into challenges getting fans through the process and into the virtual experience because: 1. people were shy of a download, 2. not enough people have high-end graphics cards, 3. passwords had to be emailed and often got lost in spam filters, 4. the first thing people wanted to do was customize their avatar, but the built-in avatar mod tools are not yet tied to things like custom skins, clothing, hair, or other attachments.
I view Linden Lab as a great innovator, but the technology has a long way to go in terms of accessibility, usability, stability and performance. I elaborated on some of this the other day, but I’ve also been saying this for years.
Much of my frustration comes down to not having enough control over the user experience and the back-end technologies. I do not blame Linden Lab for this – they are a separate business and I do not expect their priorities to perfectly align with ours. However, this pushed us to think aggressively about alternatives, and to really examine whether the mainstream market is really ready for Second Life (and vice versa).
Some people have accused me of blaming Second Life for our own mistakes. That is not my intention. We’ve made plenty of mistakes and learned a ton as we push the envelope. However, ESC is moving away from Second Life, and I have been trying to explain the reasons. ESC is platform agnostic and we try to use the right tools for our client needs. Our needs are not the same as those trying to market to the existing SL population, or those working on enterprise collaboration who want an affordable platform for experimentation – SL is great for that.
I believe that we have to look technologies in the eye, and examine their strengths and weaknesses honestly.
A message came out at VWC that we should fret less about technical limitations and remind ourselves why we love virtual worlds. I know why I love virtual worlds, but this isn’t about my love – it is about making a great user experience and focusing on that problem.
We need to both come up with amazing experiences and overcome the technical constraints to success. I’m not thinking about the people in virtual worlds today, but the millions and millions who are not there YET.
I’m a roll-up-the-sleeves kind of guy, and while we can roll up our sleeves on the front-end of Second Life, the back end remains proprietary and in Linden Lab’s hands. It’s the same dynamic that drove developers to create OpenSIM. Similar frustrations over pace caused the most prominent open source developer on the SL viewer to recently quit. Does this mean the sky is falling for Second Life? Hell no. They have solid cash flow, a strong user base and economy, and continue to make technical advances. My response is, “Good! Keep it coming!”
I won’t be coy and hide my frustrations, but I think I have probably fostered needless drama with some unguarded comments. I am a fan of the team at Linden Lab, even if I get extremely frustrated at times (and I’m sure it is mutual). I am thrilled to see the enterprise experimentation going on in SL driven by companies like IBM, Cisco, and Rivers Run Red. I should also note that we *will* have at least one project in Second Life this year.
ESC primarily focuses on creating custom virtual world experiences and whole worlds for our clients. Right now we are focused on Web technologies, but the future is fair game. I do believe that 3D is where this will all go, and we are all trying to figure out how and when.